History of Feminist Majority Foundation

1998

The Feminist Majority Foundation releases
its fifth annual National
Clinic Violence Survey, showing 24.8% of clinics reported
severe violence (including blockades, invasions, bomb
threats and bombings, arson threats and arsons, chemical attacks,
death threats, and stalking). Just two weeks later, the New
Women, All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama
becomes the target of a fatal anti-abortion bombing,
the suspected work of anti-abortion terrorist Eric Robert
Rudolph, still at large. Within hours of the bombing, the
Feminist Majority Foundation dispatched senior staff from
the National Clinic Access Project to Alabama, sending Alice
Cohan and Katherine Spillar to assist both law enforcement
and the clinic staff, acting as a vital communication link
between law enforcement and clinics throughout the country.
The clinic re-opened one week to the day after the bombing,
sending a powerful message to the extremists.

The Feminist Majority Foundation's National Center for
Women and Policing issues its first annual report, "Equality Denied: The Status of Women in Policing,
1997." The first-of-its-kind report reveals that fewer than 12% of sworn officers nationwide are women, and
that women are poorly represented in top-command positions.
Calling on law enforcement to gender balance its ranks, NCWP
Director Penny Harrington says, "Research shows that women police
officers have fewer excessive-use-of-force complaints against
them, and are better at dealing with domestic violence situations."

In response to continued news reports that California-based
UNOCAL has been negotiating with the Taliban militia to build
a gas pipeline through Afghanistan, the Feminist Majority
demonstrates, demanding that the CA attorney general revoke
UNOCAL's charter. The proposed pipeline could mean an annual
$150 million for the Taliban. A few months later, UNOCAL suspends
work on the pipeline. Several news media credit the Feminist
Majority's protests as a catalyst for UNOCAL's decision.

Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal and National Coordinator Katherine Spillar travel to
21 campuses throughout the U.S., speaking about the Choices
Campaign and Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances. The speaking
tour sends the message that pro-choice campus activism is
urgently needed, and that FMF's new campus program provides
support and leadership training to empower the next generation
of feminists.

For the first time in history, a federal court found anti-abortion
extremists liable for engaging in a nationwide conspiracy to
close abortion clinics, in violation of the Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in the NOW v. Scheidler case. Eleanor Smeal, then President of the National Organization
for Women, initiated the case in 1985. The Feminist Majority
Foundation's National Clinic Access Project provided research
and data to the case for years, and assisted during the trial.

Feminist
Majority Board member Mavis Leno and husband Jay Leno donate
$100,000 to expand efforts to help Afghan women,
and Mavis announces that she will chair FMF's Campaign
to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan. The Campaign
will educate the public on gender apartheid, outreach to college
activists, expose U.S. corporate relations with the Taliban,
and work in coalition with women's and human rights groups to
pressure the Taliban to restore women's and girls' rights.

The Feminist Majority Foundation's National Center for
Women and Policing holds its third annual conference, drawing
over 450 women law enforcement officials from 46 states. The
conference features a special session on reducing anti-abortion
clinic violence.

The Feminist Majority Foundation's National
Clinic Access Project travels to central Florida to counter
anti-abortion extremists participating in Operation Rescue's
"Operation Pushback," an attempt to close clinics in the
area. FMF's team works with community volunteers and law enforcement
to protect women's health care clinics. Operation Rescue
failed to close a single clinic during their nine-day campaign.